Chris Donegan - Invention Capital Associates

Managing Director - Invention Capital Associates

Chris Donegan is the founder of Invention Capital Associates (ICA), a consulting firm focused on achieving meaningful business impact from intangible assets. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, ICA has a presence in Boston, Newport Beach, San Diego and Silicon Valley.

Dr Donegan began his career in 1989 as a corporate strategist with Accenture. In 1994 he moved to investment banking and joined UBS Warburg, where he led investment and structuring into non-traditional asset classes. In 2000 he co-founded the Euram Banking Group, a start-up financial services firm which he piloted to a $100 million valuation within five years.

Dr Donegan has been advising private capital on investments in IP-rich situations since 2009 and has been instrumental in this context in over $450 million of direct investment, principally in life sciences.

Between 2014 and 2016 Dr Donegan was European CEO for an international IP consulting firm, where he advised companies in multiple industry sectors on the convergence between business and IP strategy. In this capacity he served clients in life sciences, secure cloud, artifical intelligence, publishing, internet TV and fintech.

In addition to his IP career, Dr Donegan is an active partner with Hywin Wealth, a $12 billion wealth management firm headquartered in Shanghai with overseas offices in Hong Kong, New York and London.

Dr Donegan is a graduate of Leeds University and Imperial College London. He holds a BSc in biochemistry and industrial microbiology and a PhD and DIC in molecular neurobiology. As a co-founder and board participant of Iroko Pharmaceuticals, Churchill Pharmaceuticals and iCeutica Nanotechnology, he has direct experience of the entire operational company lifecycle – from seed to exit.

Dr Donegan is an adviser to Phoenix IP Ventures, an invited fellow at the International IP Strategists Association and a member of the campaign committee at the Advanced Studies Centre at Keble College, Oxford.

Ten rules for choosing a non-practising entity
IAM IP Monetisation Yearbook 2012
The universe of non-practising entities
has grown dramatically over the past 10
years; companies with quality patents to
monetise should consider 10 key factors
when choosing which to work with